[SPOILER] - Suboptimal finds trees, still seeks forest

[CFCJesterFool]

Forget Nazca (for now.)

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Concur. Nazca can use the extra time to develop anyway - maybe get a holy site down, even a harbor. I'd go right for the throat with Khmer - warriors won't be able to stop potato archers.

Take one city without walls, save your gold, then if he gets walls up at his second city do what Alhambram planned in PBEM16 and buy a ram. We can try and make sure we pick up Masonry around then, too.

[suboptimal]

Nazca is off the menu. Once Irrigation completes I'll go Mining -> Masonry on techs to unlock rams and the pyramid. I'll also still get a settler out of Mashed in the mid-40s and we'll see if Dauphinoise will build its own or crank out more archers as the Khmer campaign evolves. We should be able to make enough to be able to afford a ram by the time we might need it, though we'd need to get more warriors down that way to use it effectively.

[Banzailizard]

Obviously too late to be relevant but I too support going for Khmer. A player like Pin with walls is a much bigger threat than a city state with walls. Nazca is also more vulnerable by a sea and land attack, you can make ships latter. Finally Pin's cities will be better placed than the city state.

You might want to keep a warrior around the choke point near the Sea, least Pin figure out the plan and try to use it to his advantage.

[suboptimal]

Looking at the map it's probably about 14 turns for a unit to get from Mashed to the northern extent of Khmer (9 to the Stub River, 1 to cross, 4 more to move south). It's also about 14 turns to get from Mashed to the sheep at the southern tip of the sea via the Nazca route. If we wanted to try to hide troop movements we could send our first two archers (the existing one and the first out of Mashed EoT28) that direction rather than down the eastern side.

I took a more thorough look at build possibilities to see how much we could send at Pindicator (and how early). This is what I've come up with (#'s are EoT completions):

Mashed: archer (28, current build) -> archer (31) -> archer (34) -> archer (37) -> warrior (39) -> archer (42) -> settler (49)
Dauphinoise: builder (30, current build) -> archer (33) -> warrior (36) -> warrior (39) -> archer (43) -> settler (54)

Settler completion times are without running Colonization since I'm not quite sure when Early Empire will come in. We'll be putting plantations on the first ring banana and both wines since we'll be working both wines once the city grows to 3 pop EoT29.

The current archer, first two from Mashed and archer + warrior (36) from Dauphinoise join the warrior in Khmer and start the hostilities around Turn 45. That puts four archers and two warriors on the ground, which should be enough to deal with any military and take the first city we come across. The third archer from Mashed and the second warrior from Dauphinoise arrive about five turns later, which should be sufficient to finish the job. The fourth archer from Mashed goes north, warrior (Mashed 39) and archer (Mashed 42) are home guard & settler escort while archer (Dauphinoise 43) watches the choke points.

Techs: Irrigation -> Writing -> Mining -> Masonry
Civics: Foriegn Trade -> Early Empire -> State Workforce

Our one issue is the district for State Workforce. Since we want to hold onto gold for a potential battering ram purchase (260) my idea for buying a second ring hills for an Encampment at Mashed is out barring some very good pillaging at Khmer. We could "waste" the forest on the tile SW of Mashed for a +2 Campus (cost of 87, gives up a 30 chop), that's the only good spot I see right now and it doesn't affect our intended production too much (if at all).

[suboptimal]

Turn 27

Mashed is now 4 population and I leave the new citizen working the turtles. That gets us some extra and coming in and Irrigation will complete in 4 turns. Early Empire’s boost is also in. Archer will be done the end of next turn. Elsewhere, Pindicator’s scout has emerged from the fog and is in the jungle SE of the banana tile we purchased at Dauphinoise.

There’s also a flood notification. The tiles north of Dauphinoise have flooded (see the screenshot below). That’s the extent of possible flooding, though, because the city center isn’t a flooding tile (go figure) and there are only three tiles that can flood. What’s hard to see is that the tile marked with the Nubian pyramid gained a and is now a 3 tile. Nice. Hopefully the flooding repeats itself and keeps improving those tiles.

Time to get to work. Builder camps the deer, completing the Craftsmanship boost. Swap back to that civic and it’ll complete next turn. Our gold income is now a net 8 per turn.

In the desert the archer tops the hill:




Marsh and a desert geothermal vent. That means that the tile NW of the volcano got the fertilization. That also means it’d be a bad spot for a Campus under the “disasters repeat themselves” theory. It also reveals the tile NE of the barbarian camp as a hill. I promote the archer to get to full strength and +5 vs land units. Next turn I’ll move west to defog then southeast. The turn after that I’ll either shoot the spearman (if it moves out) or top the hill and then shoot it.

In the south we have some company:




Pindicator’s warrior has come out to play. He’s also got a slinger out as his military strength went up by 15 since last turn. Also looks like he’s dealt with some barbarians since he’s got a promotion. I move northeast to see what I can see (forgot to screenshot it). There is a salt one tile east of the warrior and it is third ring to a city. It’s also the only tile in the city’s perimeter that’s visible, so the city (likely the capital) is 4 tiles due east of the warrior. I mark the approximate location in the fog and will move...somewhere closer to it...next turn. Ideally I can move past the warrior to the salt; if not I’ll move to the wine.

I will note that in checking the demographics we’re top ranked in science – 3 techs complete and 6 per turn. Pindicator is last (4, 2 techs). We’re also third in milpower and Pindicator is second (Cornflakes is first).

Hit end turn, hear barbarian sounder.

[suboptimal]

Turn 28

After a short break for the holiday (albeit an unintentional one) we’re back. Take a look around, nothing seems amiss though there are things afoot. Craftsmanship is complete, Urban Planning and Agoge are now slotted. Archer out of Mashed will be done at the end of this turn, builder out of Dauphinoise in four turns. Resume Foreign Trade, 13 turns to go.

In the desert things are starting to get lively:




Looks like the warrior is trying to catch up with his friends. Seeing as I can’t move the archer anywhere useful due to zone of control I shoot, doing 50 points of damage. It will die next turn and I’ll complete the Bronze Working eureka.

In the south Pindicator’s warrior has crossed the river. I move up to the salt and reveal the western borders of Conquest of Paradise:




His other city is Wealth of Nations (population 1) and based on the shape of the loyalty zone it’s north. I’ll enter the borders to reveal as much of the city as possible then head north myself.

Internationally TBS has finished his second civic.

Hit end turn, hear barbarian sounder again.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

North is good, closer to us.

If we're lucky, the terrain to the east of the Lakshadweep Sea is a bit easier going, although there'll still probably be a jungle belt.

[suboptimal]

It should be relatively open, barring hills or forests. It appears that Dauphinoise is on the north edge of the jungle belt and Nazca is on the southern edge. The warrior is going to go into the capital and start defogging to locate his second city. The archer getting completed during the interturn will hang around Dauphinoise for a bit (to keep Pindicator's scout honest) then head south to meet up with the warrior.

[suboptimal]

Turn 29

A turn has arrived (finally). I’m not normally one to complain about turn times but a 3-day delay because people weren’t checking PYDT and relying on notifications is…well.... Usually if I don’t get an email notification by the start of my window I’ll start occasionally checking PYDT (via program or website) to see if/when the turn has arrived.

Potato gun in Mashed is out and the barbarian warrior has attacked the other one in the desert. A barbarian camp has spawned down in the Nubian Desert, SW of the Lakshadweep Sea. The Tonlé Sap River has flooded, doing absolutely nothing (literally – no fertizilation, no unit damage, etc). Pindicator’s scout has disappeared back into the fog, presumably south of Dauphinoise. His warrior has crossed back over the river, presumably to keep me honest as I probe his territory. Time to do stuff.

Archer in the desert moves off the hill SW and then kills the barbarian warrior. This nets me the eureka for Bronze Working, reveals the tile NW of Mount Semeru (a plains hill along the coast) and puts the archer in position to move onto the hill and shoot the presumed barbarian in the camp next turn. In taking a closer look at the fog I see that the second volcanic soil tile is actually the barbarian camp. Nearby the archer at Mashed moves towards Dauphinoise and the city starts another archer. The build time shows 4 turns but the city isn’t showing any bonuses from Agoge or Ta-Seti. However, my overflow calculations have been off so it might still be four turns. We’ll see next turn. In other news, Dauphinoise will grow to 3 pop next turn and start working both of the wines.

My warrior moves east one tile and reveals the center of Pindicator’s capital:




It’s a hilltop city and that district under construction is a Holy Site. The little huts have their lights on so I assume that’s what he’s currently building. Something else that’s striking – Pindicator has no faith generation and no pantheon. I wonder if he’s decided to run Urban Planning from the get-go and use the Holy Site’s faith to get the pantheon. What I don’t get is the fact that the Holy Site is only a +1 adjacency. That will give him a culture bomb, +2 and +1 housing when it’s done but the tiles it will pick up are nothing special.

I can also make out borders to the north. I end my movement here and will spend the next two turns moving northeast to defog the other city. After that I’ll decide which way to loop around the city – I want to reveal as much as possible not only of that city but of the terrain between the two. I did check his deal screen and he’s had horses coming in the past two turns.

No news internationally except for a few people (Cornflakes, Alhmabram) picking up 3 era points and Pindicator finishing his third tech.